Evidence for health disparities that result, at least in part, from obesity in American Indian communities is compelling and consistent. School-based interventions in American Indian communities have recently been attempted, but there is evidence to suggest that even interventions in elementary school are likely too late for the primary prevention of obesity. Thus, this project seeks to develop and test an intervention designed for parents of infant American Indian children. Building on a partnership between the American Indian and Alaska Native Programs at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Washington, and the Rosebud Public Health Service Hospital, this project seeks to: 1) to develop culturally appropriate materials to educate parents on nutrition and healthy activity for themselves, their infant children, and families, establishing patterns that can be continued throughout their children's lives; 2) to establish a motivational enhancement intervention to reinforce the lessons in the educational materials and to promote actual behavioral change; 3) using random assignment with pro-and post-intervention measures, to evaluate the impact of these motivational enhancement approaches on actual weight gain in infancy and toddlerhood and, more generally, on parents' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to nutrition and activity. One of the first efforts to seek to intervene in infancy in any population, this innovative approach is carefully crafted to be sustainable within the severe resource constrains of the Indian Health Service and important elements of the research design ensure that it can be refined and expanded based on this initial trial.